Cooking or baking food items in ovens often leads to spilling and food splatter. In microwave ovens, cooking of a food item can lead to food splatter caused by release of steam during cooking or overflow of food from its cooking container. Splatter and overflow result in sticky or hardening food particles stuck on major surfaces of the microwave oven. In conventional ovens, spilling or splattering of food particles can lead to charring of the food particles that remain on the oven floor or wall. Spills or splatters that remain in ovens during subsequent cooking tend to produce odors that alter the flavor of subsequently cooked foods and may be unsanitary. Accordingly, periodic removal of food remnants and residue from oven surfaces is generally desirable, but is a difficult and time consuming chore.
In an attempt to facilitate oven cleaning, many chemicals have been introduced into the marketplace. However these chemicals are often harsh and may be hazardous to the health of a user. In addition, oven manufacturers have attempted to make self-cleaning ovens to ease the burden of oven cleaning. However, during the self-cleaning process, the ovens generate a considerable amount of heat and may generate unpleasant odors, and self-cleaning techniques are limited to conventional ovens and are generally unavailable for microwaves. As such, improved methods for operating and cleaning ovens would be desirable.